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Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964 to May 2, 1969.
The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, where the premise was introduced in an episode which aired on May 19, 1964. The show featured Jim Nabors reprising his role as the bumbling, but lovable, Gomer Pyle, who had left the town of Mayberry and joined the U.S. Marine Corps (Gomer's cousin, Goober Pyle, replaced him back home at Wally's filling station). The series mostly revolved around Pyle's misadventures in the Marines, usually ending with his good-naturedness winning over adversity, especially his hard-nosed Drill Instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter (played by Frank Sutton).
Andy Griffith himself had played a similar character in the 1958 motion picture version of No Time for Sergeants. Warner Brothers Television premiered their own No Time for Sergeants in 1964 that was scheduled opposite The Andy Griffith Show.
After twelve weeks at Boot Camp, Gomer and the others graduated and were to go to South Carolina for advanced training. At this same time, drill instructor Vince Carter left to become an Infantry trainer at Camp Henderson in California. At Camp Henderson, GySgt. Carter discovered that the new Marines he had to train were his old Boot Camp platoon, including Gomer. They had been switched from S.C. to California at the last minute.
Ronnie Schell played Gomer's best friend Private Gilbert "Duke" Slater, who later returns to the series as a corporal (after starring in Good Morning, World for a year). Other semi-regular characters were Sergeant Hacker, Bunny Wilson (Carter's girlfriend) and Lu Ann Poovie (Gomer's girlfriend). Some of the actors who played Gomer's fellow marines included Larry Hovis (Hogan's Heroes), Joe E. Tata (Beverly Hills, 90210), William Christopher (M*A*S*H), Ted Bessell (That Girl) and Jack Larson (Superman).
